The striped man
by PegasisterDashie
Summary: Everybody knows the story of the striped man. He came to ate bad girls and boys who played out of bed at night when their parents were asleep. Of course that's just a story until I found out the truth. I will never forget the Striped man.


My mother once told me a story of a man named The Striped man. As most mothers did it was a story to make their children behave. I was told the stripped man was a striped monster who wouldeat children he caught out of bed. This was a silly I grew up with and sometimes the story changed and he would be just a man wearing pajamas so I wouldn't be afraid of him. When I got older I had forgotten about the story it hadn't crossed my mind in a long time. One day as I was talking with one of my friends since my child hood they brang up the story. They had told me it was a striped dog but I corrected him. "No no it was a striped man just like my mother told me." This began to get me thinking of where the story had originally come from I thought of course my mom had just made it up. In my free time I looked up the many stories apon the web about the striped man even blogs talking about people who had actually seen the man. I found an errie game where you took striped pajamas and set them in the bed room singing out his name three times then you closed the door waiting for him. I remember the tune from my mom it went something like "The striped man the striped man, everybody knows the striped man". For a few days that song was stuck in my head I hummed it but didn't dare say it alound. Even though it was just a kids story every time I thought about it chills ran down my spine. I felt silly after words it was just all made up to make kids stay in bed and not fool around. I talked to my friend again about my findings he thought that maybe it would be fun to play the game. That night he stayed over my house and we looked up the rules to play. The rules were simple the only lights could be candles then you had to place a pair of striped pajamas on the bed. The next step was to close the door and sing his name three times without stopping. Lastly you could only do this at 11 pm and you couldn't leave the room until 12 am. If you left the room then you would only have 11 days to live. It said that each day the striped man would come and make your life hell until he finally killed you. My friend who was named Jake looked over the rules with me included was the history in which the stories had originally began. The Striped man was a young man who always wore striped pajamas to bed. During world war one they abducted people at night and experimented on them the striped man was one of them. They ended up mutatin him into a striped humanoid like monster or so the 'legend' said. That night we found an old pair of my pajamas from when I was younger. We set it on the bed and filled both night stands with candles just so we could see. We had flash lights in out pockets just in case the candles burned out so we could find the light switch. After setting everything up we had an hour to wait it had already gotten dark outside so I rold Jake we better eat then use the bathroom because we wouldn't be able to leave the room for an hour. After everything was done it was a few minutes until the required time. We stepped in the room shut the lights off and watched our phones until it was exactly 11. We began the game singing out "The striped man, the striped man everybody knows the striped man". At first nothing happened so we took a seat on the floor talking about somethings that had happened at work. We had probably been sitting there for maybe thirty minutes before we began to hear a light knocking against the bed room door. That was odd but we ignored it though it did set us on edge. Another few minutes later we heard shuffling almost like someone was pacing just right outside the door. By now it was eleven thirty three just about a half an hour left until we could leave. The next thing we heard was someone speaking muffled against the door as if they were pressed against it. "Are you in bed little boy?" This freaked me and Jake out but before I could stop him Jake got up and threw open the door thinking our friends were pranking us. Behind the door was darkness which was odd because we had left the lights on in the other parts of the house. I got up and tried the light to my room but nothing happened. "The power must be out or something." I told Jake unfortunately my land lord was the only one that could access the switch box. I tried to calling him but he must of already went to bed. Suddenly behind us the t.v turned on showing a couple of kids in striped pajamas playing in a circle. They sand "The striped man the striped man everybody knows the striped man. He eats little boys and little girls who are bad at night when their out of their parents sight." The song repeated over and over again crackling like it was an old vhs tape. I tried to turn off the t.v but it just cae right back on. In the hallway the laugh of an olderman could be heard before he spoke in a ruff voice "Your out of bed little boy". We went into the hallway only to find nothing until we heard rattling in the kitchen. There on the kitchen table was a piece of striped cloth worn and dirty with dried blood next to it was a note. Jake picked it up reading out loud what was written "You've been bad for your mommy I've come to punish you". Jake dropped the note thorougly freaked out. He ran to the door finding it jammed no matter how hard he pulled. The distant sound of the t.v stopped replaced by the loud thumping of large feet coming ever closer just before they reached the kitchen they stopped pausing before laughing could be heard. "I'll eat you whole." Just behind me Jake made a cry of pain I turned to find a striped humanoid like creature with its hand wrapped aorund his neck. Before I could even think the top of its head opened up into a large mouth like swallowing Jake whole. I quickly grabbed the butcher block throwing it into the creatures mouth the knives stabbed the fabric it was made of ripping holes in it. I searched for another knife findig one in the junk drawer and ran to the creature dodging its hands I slashed it until it was in half. Then the creature disappeared leaving nothing but he ripped pajamas I had laid on the bed. Jake was no where to be found and he never came back. I threw those pajamas away but the horror of that night forever lived with me. I will never forget The striped man.


End file.
